Spirituality
Celebrate Life Modestly
To Be 'Holy To The Max'
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ago, offers a different interpretation.
With all the commandments and
injunctions in the Torah, says Ramban, a
person can keep the Torah in its myriad
details and still enjoy a great deal of
pleasure. Nothing in the Torah prohibits
me from grilling a delicious, juicy, 100
percent
kosher steak and savoring every
n Sunday, April 13, the
tender
bite.
In fact, God created these
Detroit Free Press published
pleasures
in
the world for me to enjoy.
"Mitzvah to the Max," an
But, I could also grill 17
exhaustive account
steaks
and eat them in one sit-
of the lavish bar and bat mitz-
ting.
That
would be kosher,
vah parties that some in the
but
it
would
also be gross.
Detroit Jewish community
"And,"
tells
us
Ramban, "it
throw
certainly
wouldn't
be holy."
The reporter wrote, "Many
In
commanding
us "You
worry that readers will mistak-
shall
be
holy,"
the
Torah
does-
enly conclude that all such par-
n't
repeat
an
admonition
to
ties are extravagant, a percep-
keep
the
commandments
God
tion that may feed unflattering
already
enumerated.
Rather,
Jewish stereotypes."
God teaches us that we must
"Mistakenly?" "May feed
RABBI
learn
to sanctify our actions
unflattering stereotypes?"
REUVEN
even in the realm of the per-
Whom is he kidding?
SPOLTER
mitted. God has no problem
The article did contain one
Special to the
with
my enjoying a beer or
inaccuracy: "Some Jews, espe-
Jewish News
two.
But, when I drink a keg
cially in Orthodox families, still
or
two,
it sure isn't holy.
reject the spectacular for lower-
While
Kedoshim
means "holy," the
key luncheons ..." While technically true,
Torah
employs
the
word
in its plural
the casual reader might get the impres-
form.
While
the
word
kadosh
would refer
sion that the Orthodox community
to
one
holy
person,
kedoshim
refers to
doesn't suffer from this type of commu-
many.
In
relaying
this
commandment,
nal lavishness. Hardly. We in the
God tells Moshe, "Speak to the entire
Orthodox community are quite good at
community
of the children of Israel and
drowning ourselves in debt to invite our
,
tell
them,
'You
shall be holy''
600 closest friends to a wedding, corn-
Holiness isn't simply a personal issue.
plete with a full smorgasbord, French
It's
a communal commandment. When
service and open bar. We have lost our
each
of us individually makes the right
communal sense of tzniut or modesty.
choices
in our own personal lives, we ele-
This is not a Conservative or Reform
vate
not
just ourselves, but our commu-
problem. It's a Jewish problem that we all
nity
as
well.
need to work on together.
The Torah contains no prohibition
"You shall be holy," demands God at
against
spending half-a-million dollars on
the outset of this week's parshah (Torah
your
son's
bar mitzvah. And it offers no
portion). We all like to be holy. But it's a
explicit
injunction
against serving steak
pretty vague commandment. How do
to
600
of
my
dosest
friends at my
you do it? How does one achieve sanctity
daughter's
wedding.
But the question
mired by the challenges and pitfalls of
each
of
us
must
ask
ourselves
when we
daily life?
plan
our
simchah
is:
"Will
it
make
my
Rashi, the famous French medieval
event
holy?
Will
it
make
my
community
commentator, sees the commandment as
holy? Is it really Mitzvah to the Max?" 111
an injunction to refrain from sexual
Shabbat Kedoshim:
Leviticus 19:1-20:27;
Numbers 28:9-15;
Isaiah 66:1-24.
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depravity. Others consider it an overarch-
ing, general demand: Keep the entire
Torah and it will sanctify you. But,
Ramban (Nachmanides), a Spanish
scholar who lived more than 500 years
Reuven Spolter is rabbi of Young Israel
of Oak Park. His e-mail address is
rabbispolter@yiop.org
Conversations
At the end of the Torah portion,
God explicitly connects observing
the Torah and inheriting the land
of Israel. (20:23-24) What can we
learn from this important rela-
tionship about the land of Israel?
s
:
\